Hoovering the Floor: How Often You Need to Do It

Hoovering the carpets often seems like an onerous chore, especially if you have a particularly heavy machine that’s difficult to move across the carpet, let alone lift out of the closet.

But there are quite a few reasons why it should be done, apart from impressing people who stop by for a quick chat. Many of them are health-related. The big question is: How often should hoovering be done?

The answer is quite simple: at least once a week, especially in the heavy-traffic areas where people walk on the carpets either with bare feet or shoes, drop food, etc. Here are some other tips as to why you should hoover the carpets once a week, at the least:

• Allergies. If you, or the people you live with have any kind of allergy issues, making sure your carpets are clean and free of any allergens–such as dust and pet dander– as often as possible. If you can swing it, rent or purchase a steam cleaner to really give your carpeted floor a good boost—and the allergy sufferers in your life—a much-needed break from the sniffles, sneezing and coughing.• Bed Bugs. Believe it or not, bed bugs are not just in your bed. They can be in your rugs and carpets as well. If left undisturbed, they can exist for months on end, even on bare floors! So making sure to hoover the bare floors as well as carpeting is not exactly a bad idea, especially since bed bug bites are not often felt by humans.• Nicotine. This tip is for those who smoke. You should hoover your carpets more than once a week, as carcinogens from cigarettes can actually be embedded into carpets and upholstery, raising the cancer risk for your children and pets.

Making sure you hoover your carpets, rugs and upholstery can not only help you and your family (or tenants, if you’re a landlord) cope with all the various microscopic things that are often present in the house. While making sure this chore is done once a week is minimal, it never hurts to vacuum at least every other day if you know you’re going to have a high volume of foot traffic either from pets and